Wrote this up for another forum I visit and thought I would share just in case anyone was interested :-) It rambles a lot as it is just some thoughts on the GW2 Beta I did this weekend. It is spoiler free as I only made level 7 and don't go into actual plot just overview for the most part.

First everyone should know that I only played the human race. With limited time I wanted to focus and, of all the races, the humans are the ones I plan on playing in GW2 for a variety of reasons. Second I played a male ranger and a male rogue – both to level 7. So my impressions are all based those assumptions.

CHARACTER CREATION

I really enjoyed the CC in GW2. While it isn’t on the same level as Skyrim it has plenty of options – more so than many other MMO’s on the market. You have a selection of preset faces, hair styles, beards, and body types. Then you can enhance those features with sliders for many facial features (sliders have limited effect in many cases though), colors for eyes, hair, skin, and you can dye your starting armor.

After you pick your race, gender, class and looks you are asked an initial question that is connected to your class. For example for rogue I could choose mask because I wish to remain hidden and anonymous, or a head band because I am not afraid to hide and show my determination, or a hood that lets me move about in the background without standing out (like a mask does). Rangers pick an initial animal, and a caster might pick a gem. After that you pick a core personality trait (Charming, Dignity, or Ferocity). These can show up in some dialogue choices later … but since the choices are all three I am not sure what the actual impact ,if any, are of choosing a “favorite” one.

You then have some background questions – street rat, commoner, or noble. “What I regret” question – orphan that never tracked down parents, unavenged (?) dead sister, or never joined the circus (no idea why they picked that). Then pick a god/goddess from the human pantheon, and lastly you get a little write up off your “story” that you sign with your characters name.

PRO: Fair number of choices to design a character that you like. Fun little background options that appear to carry into the story (for example your “main story” quest plot line reflects your initial background – reminds me somewhat of DAO origin stories) Overall a good set up.

CON: My only major gripe is the ears. They are blocky – remind me of a cardboard cut out folded into ear shape. When you go with short/no hair you can see how blocky they are from behind the characters head. They also look a tad pointy near the top, like the edge of a block. Also would be nice to have more scars (only once choice), tattoos, different complexions, and more hairy chest models.

QUEST/EVENTS:

I am sure other games have done this, but this is my first exposure to a quest mechanism that more just happens. You don’t really go out talking to everyone to gather dozens of quests in a log. There are these event hubs (circles) and as soon as you enter them you get a message on screen that starts to track your progress. It is all groups based – meaning everyone is just one massive group in the event by default. Rewards are based on what you contribute from what I can tell.

Example: I might enter into a farm area. A message pops-up that tells me Farmer Joe needs help. I then have a brief summary of things I can do to help. I can feed the cows by giving them straw, I can water the corn, stamp out nasty giant worms, fight off bandit attacks, and put out fires. It all occurs in that area (so no running all over) with no need to talk and pick up a quest. Everyone else is doing them as well. You share rewards and kills so it’s a very cooperative effort. While there “epic” events occur – like a massive bandit attack or a giant killer worm that needs to be taken down. These are much harder but lots of fun as everyone is helping out. It gets very chaotic though.

So these events occur all over (keeping in mind I am only level 7 so haven’t explored much of the world) and as you complete a “set” of quests you complete the “event area”. The game also tracks your overall progress in “helping” out those in the area by completing different event sets. You also earn karma while doing this – and karma can be used at many vendors for special rewards.

If you leave an event then it disappears from your window but you can pick it up again, where you left on progress, later on. In other words maybe you did 50% of the tasks to help the farmer out. come back another day and do the rest.

Example Two: You also get more traditional quests – but even then just one at a time (at least in low level). They are tracked in your “story”. Until you finish the quest it is just a short description. But once you are done it writes out the story as part of your “biography”. These quests have you move around a lot more and are pretty varied. You get dialogue (cinematic) sessions, different tasks (not all combat) and each quest moves you ahead in your story. I was really enjoying these. Not as cinematic as Star Wars: TOR but still nice.

Example Three: One cure quest is chasing after rabbits that got loose in a watermelon patch. You just have to scoop them up, and they appear in your arms, and bring them back to the farmer. It is a short, fun, little quest to get some karma and experience. I only mention it as a way of showing an “event” that doesn’t involve combat. There is a decent amount of diversity for an MMO.

PRO: Fun change of pace on questing, very cooperative, gives a fun way do things with others but also on your own. Well paced IMO. Good basic foundation for role playing your character. Quests seem to relate to actually helping out in the war and people versus just collecting and killing things. They have more meaning. The personal story adds even more chance to get involved.

CON: Miss the chance to choose dialogue in story to reflect some personal ethic/morals. I was hoping for some choice based on your origin choices (charm, dignity, ferocity). Now I saw some simple dialogue options with NPC’s where you could pick various lines of dialogue based on those three … but they seemed to be just flavor and a single response versus a choice that might change the direction of the story. Still it was a nice touch – and at least a step forward for an MMO.

GAME PLAY/MECHANICS/GUI

There are a lot of cool little touches to this game that I am really enjoying. Hard to know where to start so just going to list some things I had strong impressions on.

TRAVEL: Not only does the game have the usual long distance gates (zone to zone in a way) but within each “zone” you have way points that really help you get around fast once you discover them. The city Divinity’s Reach is MASSIVE. The city alone has a lot of way points it is so large. Plus you can stop by the local priestess at the entrance and get a nice little speed buff for free while running around.

EQUIPMENT: Lots of variety and many clothes and armor options. You can switch between armor and clothes with a single click; great for role playing or switching between adventures or hanging out in town. You can also dye all your items right from the inventory gui. You start with a bunch of basic colors – all free – and you can switch to “dye” mode and go to town. You can also buy or craft more rare colors and add them to your palette. It is an awesome idea and really lets you customize your character.

GUI: Overall pretty intuitive (especially since I had no manual and was just tossed into beta) and easy to use. I found it very flexible. Auto-compacting of bags (like combining like items), right click on anything and pick what you want to do – use, equip (even which slot), destroy, mail, etc. Hero (character) screen also tracks some items in bags (like weapons and armor) for more ease of use –so you don’t have to have your bags open to dress/equip your character). Skills, traits, utility skills, etc., are all easy to find and assign to hot keys. You can change size of windows, move things around, and fairly adjustable (well for me at least as I tend to go with defaults … so that may not be saying a lot for those who overhaul there GUI).

COMBAT: Could write a book but in brief it was fast paced but manageable (not counting massive battles). I found the challenge just right for me on my characters, with the Ranger being a tad easier than the Rogue (who requires more strategy and caution). Others have commented that there are some big balance issues with certain classes … and I saw some impressive casters … but since I only played two classes I can only say those two seemed right to me.

Battles solo were easy to focus on, although some abilities where you jump around could be chaotic. Big battles … those were pretty spastic but no worse than RIFT. With so many things going on, so many players and effects, very hard to focus on the screen trying to target. Using hotkeys may help with that although I am a mouse user. In those cases having a ranged attack can keep you out of the chaos. Still I found it exciting and got my blood flowing even if it was hard to track things.

SKILLS/TRAITS/ABILITIES: I really didn’t get high enough to get into traits but so far I loved the way skills worked (including the utility versions). You have various weapon sets (Ranger had long bow, short bow, 2H, axes, sword and dagger, harpoon (for underwater) and spear. You switch them out and get to unlock up to 5 skills for each weapon set. As you level you also get skill points (starting at level 6) for utility skills. Healing abilities, poison, traps, etc… varies on class. So on the GUI you have weapon skills on one side and utility on the other.

Example: On my ranger I unlocked all skills for 2H swords – giving me special abilities for using that weapon. I then did the same for long bow, long sword and dagger, and sword and warhorn (which is cool as you can summon hawks to distract your target or spirit of the wolf (hunt) to buff all those around you). You can’t change in battle but can switch at will outside of combat. So LOTS of options without overwhelming you. You can focus on just 5 skills which makes it easier to know what you are doing (versus having 30 hot key buttons where one might be something like “adds 3% to critical if done after dodging an attack during a full moon” – gawd I hate those types of things; I just don’t have the memory/attention to track all those IF A then B but only if during XYZ types of abilities. Course I may find they crop on in higher levels but for now, at least, they are pretty simple.

Again maybe things change higher up – but for now combat is exciting, fun, and a nice mix of simple to use but allows for planning and strategy as you gain more skill sets. Each one actually seems to do something useful as well (versus the lame ones in SWTOR where you get a 1% increase to X).

Example Two: The rogue works the same way but with very different abilities even for the same weapons. They all work in synergy as well – but there are plenty of articles that explain that. I was hesitant on rogue as the stealth is not like WoW. It only lasts 3-8 seconds and is just for combat (but it can also let you get away if quick enough). But it is very fun and takes some thought on how you use your abilities. If careless you die easy … but if you plan you can do some great damage. The rogue is also very acrobatic and flashy.

PERFORMANCE:

Well this was beta so I didn’t expect much. Login servers went down a few times and I couldn’t get my “free” gems until Sunday (you can buy gems, normally, with gold earned in game or with real cash – a nice option to be able to do either. Note gems let you buy various things like fun outfits, dyes, potions for experience or karma gains, and other little things – they add to the game without really giving any real unfair advantage). Guild chat was buggy (went in and out) and sometimes NPC’s got stuck in a rut with voice over repeating over and over. Still, for beta, I found the game playing smoother than many games I have played on release. Overall it was a very positive experience. But I know others had tons of frustration – got locked out of EU servers, never able to login, getting booted, etc., so mileage may vary.

SUMMARY:

Well this got way to long! I could write so much. It has been a kick-ass weekend playing around with this game. Obviously I liked it a lot and very much looking forward to its release. I have no idea if my initial love will carry through to high levels since I don’t know what they are like. But if the general pattern is the same then I suspect I will be pretty happy as I advance.

The landscapes are amazing – very high fantasy and very epic in appearance. Voice over’s are ho-hum (lack emotional context) but at least they are not too bland or corny. Don’t expect too much though. NPC’s are okay – some are certainly more memorable than others. I tried the initial story lines for each (street rat, commoner, noble) and thought the street rat one was the most interesting (well to level 6) but connected more with the commoner one. The noble one … well it fit as it seemed a bit callous and fluffy … but was my least favorite.

Loved the avatars (characters) and all the clothing/armor options. Exploring was fun and they had an interesting way of interacting with the game world. You would pick up something and it would replace your weapon set – you could then use it in some manner or drop it to convert back. For example pick up a torch and you could set something on fire or set it back down. Pick up a hoe and gather some herbs or use it to bang a worm on its head.

I joined two guilds and really liked how you could switch between them. I had a list of them on the guild interface then could “represent” or “step down” to switch between my active guild. it was also cross-server which was very cool. For the record I did my playing on Eternal Grove.

Next chance I get I may try some crafting – which I didn’t touch this round. I also don’t PvP so can’t speak much about that.

Corwin

April 30th, 2012 02:32

Thanks, I enjoyed the original game so I'm interested in reading about this.

Temecula

April 30th, 2012 02:57

Quote:

(you can buy gems, normally, with gold earned in game or with real cash – a nice option to be able to do either. Note gems let you buy various things like fun outfits, dyes, potions for experience or karma gains

…and then I resolved to never buy or try this game. Too bad, I was kind of looking forward to it.

Zloth

April 30th, 2012 05:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Temecula
(Post 1061141361)

…and then I resolved to never buy or try this game. Too bad, I was kind of looking forward to it.

Yeah, that sounds ugly to me, too. Having to play alongside folks who've got a lot more money than play experience at the higher levels does NOT sound like a good thing at all. It's the first serious mark against GW2 I've seen so far.

I doubt I would skip playing the game because of it but it's quite worrisome.

"It gets very chaotic though."

Great! One thing that can get real annoying in big team efforts is that you end up feeling like a cog instead of a player. You get assigned your role before the battle starts and you have to stick to it - which tends to translate into clicking 3 or 4 buttons over and over. More chaos means more need to evaluate what I need to be doing from minute to minute.

I also like the sound of these events where you can do several different things to help out. That should help the replayability quite a bit!

Thanks for the impressions, wolfgrimdark!

Drithius

April 30th, 2012 09:26

Exp gain +% is only for creatures killed; majority of exp comes from quest events, which are unaffected by any modifier as far as I know.

It's a big game. HUGE game. And, with 80 levels, you'd really have to get creative to not know how to play your class regardless of whatever you bought yourself in terms of bonuses.

While I'm already addressing the heathenish scourge of microtransactions, I'd also like to mention that not once did I run into anything that required a store transaction - no locked content, abilities, etc..

Quote:

One thing that can get real annoying in big team efforts is that you end up feeling like a cog instead of a player. You get assigned your role before the battle starts…

There are no roles whatsoever in GW2. While certain classes can heal or tank or CC better than others, each can do a bit. And enemies tend to hit so hard that it takes smart and evasive control of your character, regardless of who is on your team.

Overall, a wonderful beta experience for me. The GW2 Facebook is all aglow from similar comments. The game is just so fresh in terms of MMO gameplay.

…the one bad thing? There's a lot that seems unfinished. Some cinematic voiceovers missing, vendors not selling what they're labeled to sell, not to mention some balance issues (my hope for the engineer class was severely dashed by being so underpowered). Anyway, it's beta afterall, but therein lies my disappointment - I was yearning for a June release, but I foretell a Q3/Q4 launch instead :(

DArtagnan

April 30th, 2012 09:33

Well, I've been in beta for a few months. It's not my kind of MMO at all - but I can see how it can be really great for a large amount of people.

It seems they've taken much of what's bad about the genre and removed it. That's nice, but ultimately - they haven't actually replaced it with anything. So, you're left with less BAD stuff and less stuff overall.

To me, this translates to a relatively shallow experience with limited longevity. But I know that lots of people enjoy the kind of structured and instanced PvP on show - where the numbers are more important than the individual. It's not my kind of competition, but I can see the appeal. I still doubt even fans of that kind of PvP can be happy with WvW indefinitely, but maybe I'm wrong about that.

The story, so far, is pretty forgettable. Bad dialogue and super cliché characters, etc. SWtOR was much better in this way (the only really good part of that game) - and I certainly wouldn't play GW2 for the story.

Oh well… ArcheAge is the only MMO that has me excited at this point.

wolfgrimdark

April 30th, 2012 15:58

Drithius already explained more. But in general the exp and karma boosts are like a mark you buy and use for 60 minutes for 50% increase on kills. It is true that most exp comes from quests though.

I can understand how people who are very competitive would find this annoying though, or those worried about player skill (although I find player skill is random even with time played). If your goal is to always be in the top 10% of being "first" in everything then it would be very annoying that people with both TIME and MONEY would be at an advantage, versus the more traditional issue of just those with time being at more of an advantage. It could also be a concern for PvP I suppose - as karma increases might help get better equipment faster.

However for me it was a non-issue. I never rush to level or reach the end of a game so if people want to do that then that is their business and pleasure.

So while I am not keen on any cash involved in a game for MT (micro-transactions) I can ignore it as long as I can play the basic game. At least the game is for free, unlike Secret World where they are both going to charge you a monthly fee and have MT.

I happened to enjoy the story and characters a lot even if nothing to write home about. I don't expect great novels when playing a game, especially an MMO. I found the street rat quest line more indepth than the others though. While very cliche it was still fun and I liked that I had to decide between saving one or the many. At least I was finally given some options on making a choice.

I also found some nice new additions to the game, compared to many of the other MMO's I have played, so felt it was a nice balance overall. They do need to fix some of balance issues, especially in the personal story area.

This might count as a spoiler as I will compare some of the details in the level 8 Rogue quest. As my Ranger aced his level 8 without a death but my rogue died 11 times. Note: I managed to make level 8 sunday night after I wrote this preview.

Spoiler

had a Ranger, commoner, and a Rogue, street rat. My ranger caked through his level 8 story quest at level 8; didn't die once. My Rogue … OMG. He died 11 times. He was almost naked when he finished as all his armor got damaged beyond wearing (luckily I had some random clothes I could wear I hadn't sold yet). I think I was only able to finish the story quest from luck and possible taking advantage of AI. I would respawn and be immediatley attacked by like 6 bandits in the town. I would vanish and run through buildings and loose them for a moment. I would revive a few guards (who would all die quicklly) and have enough time to pick off one or two guards before I was zerged again. Quinn was almost useless.

I was trying to get to the gate but kept dying. Inch by inch I made it there. Overall way to hard. I had been planning on waiting till level 10 but this was sunday night and wanted to see the ending … and now seems like it wouldn't have matter if I went back later as apparently your HP get lowered to match a quest area.

Drithius

April 30th, 2012 17:15

I'm really quite sad that the first beta event is over. I've found myself reading a couple beta forum posts and this one talks about something that really stood out to me in GW2, a feature that isn't typically quantified in reviews or other games (aside from something like PnP):

Quote:

Just wanted to say that the dynamic events do really pull groups together and get people working together very well.

Quote:

It was a lot of fun, working with a mob of random people, all working hard together to achieve the goal and hold ground … and when we finally took the place back there were cheers going up all around the camp. It was awesome.

Quote:

I agree. This is absolutely phenomenal. For the first time EVER in an MMORPG I’m actually happy (and sometimes even relieved) to see other players around when questing. It also leads to a considerably better community with far less hostility. I’ve literally not seen any annoying behavior or chat in the game yet because here finally is a game which promotes cooperation rather than competition.

I felt the same way. There was great sense of camaraderie that I haven't felt in a long time within a game. Quest progress, mob experience - it's all shared, whether you're in a group or not. You'll often find yourself looking for the graphic effects going off in the distance as a homing beacon on where the action is.

wolfgrimdark

April 30th, 2012 23:30

Quote:

I felt the same way. There was great sense of camaraderie that I haven't felt in a long time within a game. Quest progress, mob experience - it's all shared, whether you're in a group or not. You'll often find yourself looking for the graphic effects going off in the distance as a homing beacon on where the action is.

In such sharp contrast to EQ1 with kill stealing, camping, waiting in line for a boss … I loved EQ1 but there were many things I don't miss at all.

I had an awesome time playing (can you tell lol) and especially liked being able to rally (revive) other players and seeing them help me as well. Plus I could revive the NPC's … that was pretty cool.

The whole set of events felt real … it was engaging and involved and all part of a greater community.

Corwin

May 1st, 2012 00:57

The working together/community concept is why I really enjoy DDO, especially playing with people from here!!

wolfing

May 1st, 2012 01:46

isn't that like the Rift thing? It was amusing the first few times but then I just ignored those rifts.

Drithius

May 1st, 2012 02:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by wolfing
(Post 1061141585)

isn't that like the Rift thing? It was amusing the first few times but then I just ignored those rifts.

I haven't played Rift, but, from what I've read, the rifts there are pretty basic events that don't change over time. In contrast, dynamic events actually change the world in GW2. For example, if you fail to protect a water supply during one event, it leads to another event that has noxious fumes coming up from the same water supply. Fail to defend a town, and you are in for one helluva tough fight taking it back from the enemy.

Bear in mind that all of these events reward sizable chunks of experience at the end. So fun interactive content + rewards = a win in my book.

wolfing

May 1st, 2012 13:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drithius
(Post 1061141589)

I haven't played Rift, but, from what I've read, the rifts there are pretty basic events that don't change over time. In contrast, dynamic events actually change the world in GW2. For example, if you fail to protect a water supply during one event, it leads to another event that has noxious fumes coming up from the same water supply. Fail to defend a town, and you are in for one helluva tough fight taking it back from the enemy.

Bear in mind that all of these events reward sizable chunks of experience at the end. So fun interactive content + rewards = a win in my book.

Actually that is like Rift. These rifts would spawn at random places, and if left unchecked start spawning mobs, the longer, the stronger mobs, then mobs would start attacking nearby towns including NPCs etc. And yes there were rewards for it, but to me, like I said, was fun the first few times, but after the 4th or 5th rift it was just same old thing.

azarhal

May 1st, 2012 14:10

Rift stole GW2 dynamic event idea (i.e. GW2 announced they had it before Rift did), but Rift developers didn't really understood what GW2 had in mind. They only implemented the attack version that Anet first explained (Centaurs attacking a village), but without the chained part (beat back invaders + rebuilt village).

In GW2 you have quite a bit of variety in events: defend, escort, attack, collect, free prisoners, destroy, rebuilt. Might be more, that's the one I participated in. Some are chained, some are not and some are just there for fun. Also, they are not random. Events are carefully planned with specific monsters/creatures and result for success/failure. Some have a lots of lore behind them too. Some require you to talk to a NPCs to "trigger".

Example of events I have done in my BWE in 3 starting zones and never going above level 5:

Stop rabbits from eating watermelons.

Return frightened cows to their pens.

I stumbled upon an escort event where I had to follow 3 Charr cubs exploring haunted ruins. We had to keep their fear level low, which mean beat down the ghost when they show up to scare them. While the cubs were exploring, they had funny little conversation. Funniest event so far and totally adorable.

A got a couple of different collect events: collect apple in a spider infested area (chain in loop into clear place of spiders and kill the queen), steal ore (chained into miners retaliating), collect devourer eggs using distracting thumpers and take back cannonballs from thiefs.

X attacking Y so we have to defend it.

Escort a scout from point A to B

Transform into a snow leopard and root Dirge Excavator from the ground and bushes.

Kill X like the Flame Legion Shaman.

Destroy camp of Son of Svanir with a wolf pack.

I also missed quite a few, because I didn't play that much in the human area. And I never saw the larger event chains that show up after level 10. Also, completing an event will make a new karma vendor available for a while. Failing events can cause some merchants to have nothing to sale until a new event start and is completed successfully.

wolfgrimdark

May 1st, 2012 23:12

1 Attachment(s)

Nice collection of quests. I enjoyed the rabbit one. Your description of the Char quest makes me want to make a Char just for that!

hishadow

May 2nd, 2012 00:14

Like DArtagnan, I'm pretty jaded about mmos ;), but the few hours I got ti play left a good impression. The scope of the world zone seems good despite use of instancing (it's termed overflow). I will reserve judgement till later but seems worth a try given all the crappy mmos I've played previous years.

wolfing

May 2nd, 2012 00:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by azarhal
(Post 1061141659)

Rift stole GW2 dynamic event idea (i.e. GW2 announced they had it before Rift did), but Rift developers didn't really understood what GW2 had in mind. They only implemented the attack version that Anet first explained (Centaurs attacking a village), but without the chained part (beat back invaders + rebuilt village).

In GW2 you have quite a bit of variety in events: defend, escort, attack, collect, free prisoners, destroy, rebuilt. Might be more, that's the one I participated in. Some are chained, some are not and some are just there for fun. Also, they are not random. Events are carefully planned with specific monsters/creatures and result for success/failure. Some have a lots of lore behind them too. Some require you to talk to a NPCs to "trigger".

Example of events I have done in my BWE in 3 starting zones and never going above level 5:

Stop rabbits from eating watermelons.

Return frightened cows to their pens.

I stumbled upon an escort event where I had to follow 3 Charr cubs exploring haunted ruins. We had to keep their fear level low, which mean beat down the ghost when they show up to scare them. While the cubs were exploring, they had funny little conversation. Funniest event so far and totally adorable.

A got a couple of different collect events: collect apple in a spider infested area (chain in loop into clear place of spiders and kill the queen), steal ore (chained into miners retaliating), collect devourer eggs using distracting thumpers and take back cannonballs from thiefs.

X attacking Y so we have to defend it.

Escort a scout from point A to B

Transform into a snow leopard and root Dirge Excavator from the ground and bushes.

Kill X like the Flame Legion Shaman.

Destroy camp of Son of Svanir with a wolf pack.

I also missed quite a few, because I didn't play that much in the human area. And I never saw the larger event chains that show up after level 10. Also, completing an event will make a new karma vendor available for a while. Failing events can cause some merchants to have nothing to sale until a new event start and is completed successfully.

Sounds good, but then there's the other problem. How can it work for people with a range of levels. What's stopping a level 50 wizard from casting the fireball of doom and killing everything while your puny level 10 ranger watches it all die before his first arrow even gets its mark?

Drithius

May 2nd, 2012 01:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by wolfing
(Post 1061141768)

Sounds good, but then there's the other problem. How can it work for people with a range of levels. What's stopping a level 50 wizard from casting the fireball of doom and killing everything while your puny level 10 ranger watches it all die before his first arrow even gets its mark?

Different areas within zones are locked in at a particular level. Even if your stated 50 wizard were to journey to a newbie area, (s)he would only be level 3 (or there about); similarly for other, more advanced areas. You still retain all your unlocked skills, but you're considerably less powerful with them.

It's frankly about time another MMO beyond City of Heroes implemented this great mechanic. Not only does it mitigate griefing, but it's far easier for people from all level ranges to help one another.

Bear in mind that your example also plays into a (fallacious) mindset that the game is about "killing things" for experience. That tired old game model is very much minimized in GW2 - most of your experience stems from dynamic events and heart quests, for which any contribution is rewarded collectively amongst players.

wolfing

May 3rd, 2012 01:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drithius
(Post 1061141775)

Different areas within zones are locked in at a particular level. Even if your stated 50 wizard were to journey to a newbie area, (s)he would only be level 3 (or there about); similarly for other, more advanced areas. You still retain all your unlocked skills, but you're considerably less powerful with them.

It's frankly about time another MMO beyond City of Heroes implemented this great mechanic. Not only does it mitigate griefing, but it's far easier for people from all level ranges to help one another.

Bear in mind that your example also plays into a (fallacious) mindset that the game is about "killing things" for experience. That tired old game model is very much minimized in GW2 - most of your experience stems from dynamic events and heart quests, for which any contribution is rewarded collectively amongst players.

That's good to hear (or read), but no I wasn't talking about the experience (as in XP), but as the experience (as in the dismay of not being able to contribute when the big guys come and kill everything in sight). To me, that's a lot more important than XP. But I'm glad they addressed this situation. So I take it these dynamic events only happen then in level locked areas?

Roq

June 22nd, 2012 03:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by wolfing
(Post 1061141977)

That's good to hear (or read), but no I wasn't talking about the experience (as in XP), but as the experience (as in the dismay of not being able to contribute when the big guys come and kill everything in sight). To me, that's a lot more important than XP. But I'm glad they addressed this situation. So I take it these dynamic events only happen then in level locked areas?

Level locked areas? I don't think that's quite how it works. In fact players are automatically downscaled to the level of each particular event or renown heart rather than by area. And that downscaling happens throughout the PvE content. It does remain to be seen though what effect better weapons & traits at very high level will have since those aren't downscaled - quite substantial I would have thought.

Another thing causing a bit of confusion is the distinction between dynamic events and renown hearts. Renown hearts are not events, but are more like quest hubs, except that you can do any task in the vicinity to fill your heart and you don't need to sign up for them by getting a quest from an NPC. Often dynamic events occur in the vicinity of renown hearts, so people understandably got a bit confused in the beta, between the two.